A Realization too Late
by InfiniteDreamer1
Summary: An alternate ending to series 2 episode 6


**Hellooo, new story here! Recently watched 'In the Flesh' recently and loved it so I thought I'd write this little story here, enjoy!**

Jem was holding the colt, her colt, the weapon that could only be trusted in the right hands, she'd had nightmares of holding this gun again, she hated the feeling that she would ever have to kill another living…or dead… life, it was all in hands. She felt her hands going clammy, her brothers face flickering to Henry and then back to Kier, and she couldn't go through it again. She had been scared of her brother, the way he had recently refused to put on his cover up moose and his eyes looking soulless…dead. He was her brother…wasn't he?

He suddenly growled in her direction, his mouth was full of an oozing black liquid and he was twitching violently towards her. How, why would he have taken this stuff, he was rebelling but she never thought he'd want to turn zombie again. She remembered the old him, the real him, he used to give her mix CDs, he knew the music she liked without telling him. He had that kind of understanding, his heart was in the right place. How could this have ever happened to him?

Her aim on Kier was distracted by the voice of her father.

"Can you hear me son?"

"Dad what are you doing?" she asked in an irritated voice, of all times now?

"He's not going to hurt anyone. He knows me." He reassured.

Kieren started shaking his head like he was having a conflict in his head with his own good conscience.

"He's fighting it!" Steve said hopefully.

"You need get out of the way right now!" Jem ordered her father.

"He's not gone." Her father turned around to tell her. "I know he's in there." He turned back round to Kieren. "I've got to believe you can hear me Kier."

Kieren was forcefully shaking his head again.

"I know we haven't seen eye to eye recently. That doesn't mean I don't love you, no matter what you are. I was wrong but I know no. I won't let 'em take you away. You're my son."

The clock struck twelve, to most this was just a normal sound of midday, to others, this was the fatal sound of an event in history that would change everything. The second rising, the rising of the righteous, it had to happen; it needed to happen, if not, the PDS would never be accepted into society.

So here they all were.

Simon was about to lunge forwards to accept the fate he had to for fill to make the second rising happen, the knife was loose in his hand, one hit, one life stood in the way of the best possible future there could be, but that life was Kieren's. Simon shook his head, it had to be done. Someone grabbed him from the behind, his reflexes kicked in and he hit him with his right foot between the legs.

He ran with the knife, Kieren's sister looked him right in the eye; the gun was now pointed at him as he ran for his risen lover. He heard footsteps behind him, Gary had recovered and was now out to probably kill him; he didn't care. If he did this, all would be well.

He saw Jem's fingers click the revolver in slow motion, he was around four metres away from Kieren; he leapt just after he heard the bang. He was on Kieren.

Now or never he supposed.

He took the knife and plunged it in the back of his head and slowly pushed the knife upwards into his skull… Kieren choked wordlessly, becoming motionless. How could he have done this? Kieren turned around and rose his eyes to meet Simon's until he faded away…for the second time in his life and fell to the ground. His red hair became even darker as blood leaked downwards from the knife and blood trickled slowly down his nose.

"NO!" he heard Jem shout as she shot several bullets in his direction, one hit his right shoulder and the other hit the bottom of his left arm. Simon dashed into the woods, he was shaking all over; he had killed the only person he had ever loved in his life, other than his mother. He didn't care for a second rising; he wouldn't mind if he had been a traitor, he would be experimented on back in the labs if it would bring him back. It was his fault, it was his entire fault.

X

Jem looked at her brother on the floor; a trail of blood was seeping from the knife. Everything was a blur. She felt like fainting, vomiting, anything. Her dad fell to the ground, muddying the jeans he'd been so proud of. He turned him over and cried into Kier's chest.

"Why did they have to take you away again son? Why are you always the one to leave? Take me God, please take me." He wailed.

Jem felt a tear roll down her cheeks, mum didn't know, she thought he was about to go back to Norfolk. She had _no_ idea. She should've shot Simon quicker, why had she been so reluctant? It felt like when he first died the disbelief, the dismissal of the evidence, the lack of goodbye. He had never wanted to come back on this earth; people blamed him for coming back, like it was a crime.

Her eyes shifted towards the body on the floor behind Kieren. Gary. Gary, dead? He couldn't be dead, he was just fooling around, and then she saw the bullet in his forehead, that's where the bullet had gone? She'd killed her boyfriend? She ran over, how many lives had she ended today? How many mistakes would it take her?

She knelt down to check his pulse, she knew that a bullet to the head meant certain death, but she had to check it, just to be sure, she'd give anything for him to be okay. His hand was by his pocket and she saw something blue peeking out of it at the top. Her shaking fingers grasped the bottle and pulled it out.

Blue oblivion.

He drugged Kieren, he'd made him take the drug? Then she realised that Kieren had never changed, he was always Kieren, even when he was a rabid; he just wanted to be accepted by his family. In his whole life he had never been a part of this town. He was too weak, too kind, too… human. He was the best person she'd ever known, dead and alive. Why hadn't she seen this? Her brother had accepted her for who she was, he had tried to help her through days where she felt at her lowest. PDS didn't make him less human, he was more human than anyone else when he was dead. Why did he have to go? What purpose did his death have? How could someone kill anyone so perfect?

She looked over to her father, crying over his body. They had all betrayed him in the last couple of days, her being afraid of him, dad not believing him, mum agreeing to send him back to the clinic, he was more they deserved for a family member and they took him for granted. The rest of the villagers were looking at him like he was just another dead rotter. The only confusion was why another rotter had killed one of their own. A few had noticed Gary face down in the mud and were rushing over. Jem took the blue oblivion and threw it to one of the men.

"HE DID THIS TO KIEREN; HE FORCED HIM TO TAKE THE DRUG. KIEREN DIDN'T WANT TO DO THIS." She shouted. "He didn't want to do it." Her voice broke. "He was nothing but kind and just because he had a condition, you kicked him out of society. You didn't accept him, even though he was better than any of us would ever be! Gary's the evil one here! I'm glad he's dead for what he's done. He was nothing but a murderer, and so was I, I killed Henry Lonsdale you know, and I'm going to make sure that I'm punished!"

The floor started shaking and the blonde PDS sufferer, Zoe, came forward.

"It's started!" she shouted gleefully. "The second rising, the first risen has been sacrificed and now the righteous will come fourth!" the group of PDS sufferers cheered as a hand burst out of the soil from one of the graves in the new cemetery. A grave marked 'Rick Macy'…

**I might do another chapter about the funeral but I'm not so sure yet, I think it might just be a sad one shot but who knows ; ) **

**Please follow or favourite if you liked and review because it means the world to meeee!**


End file.
